Hi Patricia,

APPA distinguishes a few space categories by the type of floor in the space. For example, the Office space type is categorized by carpet floor or hard floor. Not all space types are broken out like this however, and Table IEQc3.2-1 on the LEED Credit Form can provide more information on which spaces should be scored separately based on floor type. The idea behind this is that the auditor should give a separate score for these spaces because the different floor types influence the cleaning requirements and potentially the appearance level. By scoring these spaces separately, auditors can better uncover targeted opportunities for improvement.

One thing to note is that APPA doesn't get more specific than carpet floor versus hard floor, so don't worry about categorizing spaces by the specific installed flooring like wood versus tile, etc.

As far as the LEEDuser audit worksheet goes, it can be useful to have a record of the floor type in each space so you can quickly and accurately transfer your APPA scores into the Credit Form.

Thanks,
Trista

Hi Stuart,

The APPA audit doesn't take into account any sustainability factors, just the visual appearance level of interior spaces. So its likely that some teams have custodial programs that produce clean buildings, but they're not meeting (or choosing not to pursue) the requirements of a high-performance green cleaningGreen cleaning is the use of cleaning products and practices that have lower environmental impacts and more positive indoor air quality impacts than conventional products and practices. program per IEQc3.1.

Hi Melanie,

It sounds like you're on the right track. You're not required to take a formal training course offered by a third party. Check out the last FAQ above for more info.

Best,
Trista

The reference manual says 2. That said, there are potential benefits to using additional auditors. If the auditors are from the project team, then having an additional auditor (or two) would fulfill the requirement for a "postaudit quality control process to assure accurate results."
Of course if you are close to the line your results could be affected by your choice of auditors to use which would create something of a moral quandary...

Patrick, that space should definitely be included. Who knows what kind of waste moves through there, and what diversion or reduction opportunities there might be? An audit will tell you.

Once you have established a raw score for each space (out of 100 based on APPA weightings) within a space type, you simply add all the raw scores for the spaces within a space type together and divide by the number of spaces you added together to get the average.

Andy, in my experience shops areas like this oftentimes aren't regularly cleaned in the same way as office portions of the building, which would mean they do need to be included. Is this space regularly cleaned?

Thanks, Jenny. The shop is not regularly cleaned by the janitorial staff that cleans the rest of the building but is cleaned by the people that work in the shop. We went ahead and included the shop in the audit to make sure we had all of our bases covered.

Alexis- do you still feel the building is too big even auditing only 10 of the spaces as allowed by APPA?

Yes, we are concernced about the size and consistency of the audit. We are definitely only going to audit 10% of the building but still...10% of 2mil is 200,000 SF!! I've done these audits myself in the past, and the most I've ever audited is 60,000SF and that took apprx 6 hours. Even with that size we were moving slightly faster than the APPA recommended 10 min per space. With 200,000 SF of space it would take about 20 hours to complete the audit with a single team moving at this pace (which is why we are proposing the 2 team approach). We are at odds here because if we move any faster than 10,000 SF an hour, we risk the integrity/thoroughness of the audit; if we move at 10,00SF an hour it will take a single team 2 10-hour days or 3 7-hour days to complete it; and if we use a 2 team approach then we risk consistency with scoring. Ideas? Thank you!!

IEQc3.1 is not a prerequisite for iEQc3.2. FYI, if it were, it would be stated in the credit language (see tab above).

I agree with Tristan, though if over 10% of the area is cleaned by a separate entity and they are not participating in the audit or responding to the audit results, I'm not sure it's legitimate to pursue the credit per its intent. Is the tenant contractor willing to participate to the extent that they will take into consideration / respond to any issues uncovered in the audit of the spaces they clean?

My understanding that you should include all regularly cleaned spaces in the audit, except in the case of areas under separate management and are no more than 10% of the floor area. Even if there is not a predefined APPA category, you can still evaluate the space according to the protocol set forth in APPA.

I'm in a similar situation. I'm wondering what category to qualify a very large (almost entire first floor) data center under. Our thoughts are office or storage. Have their been any additional APPA guidelines created to fit unique spaces or are they just supposed to be audited using the criteria of the existing category that most closely resembles it? I've tried navigating the website for information on how to audit unique spaces, but come away empty handed.

AS APPA was designed for educational facilities there are many space types that are not covered. You can designate your own space types in performing the audit if none of the defined spaces appear to be relevant.

As long as the criteria that you use to judge the cleanliness of the space make sense then you are actually improving the results. Of course, now you have to think about what a clean data center looks like...

Michael, I'm not familiar with the updated guidelines, but I suspect that there are enough tools on this site and info in the Reference Guide to successfully perform the audit per the old guidelines without purchasing the guide.

I have the same question as Michael : the Guidelines required for EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. IEQ3.2 (APPA Custodial guidelines edition 2) are no longer available. In our case we don't have any of the guidelines. Should we buy the new edition though it isn't cited in the requirements?
We are intending to train 2 inhouse staff members to conduct an in-house audit, and the project will be an international LEED certification (so we will have to translate the documents)
Is there a digest of the edition 2 guidelines that we could use? I see below that Tristan suggests looking at the documentation toolkit which we will do, but any advice would be helpful.

Amanda- I do not have the third edition, but I just compared the table of contents of the third edition to the second edition that I have and they are VERY similar. I can't say for sure since I don't have the third edition, but if you don'r feel that the documentation toolkit gives you enough information I suspect that the third edition would work.

Alyson- did they actually deny the credit? Or just provide you with "helpful" advice for next time? I agree that the form for this one is frustrating. I do tend to use and submit a separate worksheet (whether is is LEEDuser's or a different one) to try to show exactly what we did.

Alyson, I'm not totally sure, but I think what they maybe have been communicating is that in cases when the number of rooms is greater than 5, but 10% of the number of rooms is less than 5, you must audit at least 5 rooms. For example, if you have 10 rooms, 10% is only 1, but to meet the rules in the RG you must audit 5. If you have fewer than 5 rooms, you have to audit the total number of rooms that exist.

You could attempt to submit the ISO 90001 audits as an alternate compliance path, but I don't believe that it would be accepted since the credit very specifically requires an APPA audit. I haven't tried this alternate compliance path for this credit, but have had other similar alternate compliance approach turned down.

Hi Bayard,
Did you submit your alternate approach, and how is it accepted by the reviewer? I have also a alternative situation, with respect of the 10%/10% area/space type requirement, with the level equal to level 2 but with a statistical "# of accepted failures" before denial..

We have never audited garage spaces and been fine. That's never a 100% guarantee that they won't start requiring them in the future, but you should be OK not doing the garage.

Mechanical rooms do not need to be audited, but storage rooms typically do. You may take a little bit of a hit on your average appearance levels by including storage rooms as required if they are not regularly cleaned, but it may not be enough to negatively impact your changes on this credit.

Katie- in the past I have always differentiated between open office and private office spaces, making sure that I audit at least 10% of each type. Your quadrant system sounds fine to me, you can also simplify even further by simply ensuring that you audit at least 10% of the open office space area.

If there are less than 5 spaces of any type, you must audit all spaces of that type. If there are more than 5 of any type of space you should audit 10% of the spaces or 5 spaces, whichever is larger.

If more than 5 spaces, audit 10% of the number of spaces. If your randomly selected 10% of the spaces do not equal at least 10% of the total area of that space type, add additional spaces until you also reach 10% of the area of that type.

You should go ahead and include all of the spaces in the audit even if they are not under the control of the management. You may be able to exclude up to 10% (if you are not trying to exclude a different 10% for other credits), but the better solution is to go ahead and include the spaces.

Brian- there may be some free forms floating around on the internet. I have also found that many janitorial companies have all of the forms and are willing to share. I would recommend purchasing the guide, though, if you think you may be doing more of these audits in the future.

Lee- In order to be in total compliance with the APPA guidelines, you would have to total up your actual square footage of each space type and then audit 10% (or at least five rooms) of each type, so 10% of breakrooms, 10% of copy areas, 10% of private office, 10% of conference rooms, etc. There may be some latitude in estimating the total square footage of spaces of each type, but lumping everything together as "office" will definitely not fly.

From doing the audit in the past, I can also tell you that cleaning crews do put more or less effort into certain types of spaces and have specific issues associated with certain types of areas (i.e. sticky floors in break rooms, dirty blinds in conference rooms or burnt out lights in restrooms). Consequently, part of the value of the information derived from the audit has to do with dividing the spaces into types.

If this credit is more labor intensive for your building type than you would like, there are always other credits you can pursue instead!

Brian,

It's unlikely the weighting factors for hotel guest rooms are available in the APPA Guidelines as they were written for use in schools. Because APPA does not designate weighting factors for many room types in office buildings, hotels, convention facilities, etc., you're allowed to create your own factors. You can learn how to do this in the “Before the Performance Period” section on the “Checklists” tab.

You certainly aren't required to purchase the APPA guidelines, and the LEED Reference Guide and the information provided above in LEEDuser, including the protocol in the Documentation Toolkit, may be enough.

However, you'd have to decide this for your project based on your team's comfort level and expertise.